What's Your Plan for Your Life?

Last year, I began to get serious about having a life plan.  What's a life plan?  A life plan is an intentional direction you point your life in order to end up where you want.  Most of us go through life as spectators and reactors, allowing life to happen to us.  A life plan allows you to be proactive and intentional instead.


I'm linking to Michael Hyatt's e-book on Creating Your Personal Life Plan.  I strongly encourage you to read his post, download the e-book, and get to work on creating your own life plan.  It has been very beneficial to me personally by helping me stay on course with what I have determined to be important to my life and where I want to end up.


I'd love to hear from you.  Do you have a life plan?  What keeps you from doing one?

An Immersion Experience

A few weeks ago, the other guys on the leadership team and a couple of our Elders and I had the opportunity to participate in a training experience in Idaho titled "Immersion 1."  The event is hosted and led by Real Life Ministries in Post Falls, ID.  This is a church that began 11 years ago with 4 people meeting in a home and now has over 8.000 attend their weekend services.  The point of the conference, and it is something that RLM does very well, is to help churches focus on their primary goal - making disciples who make disciples.


This conference brought great clarity and conviction to our team that we are on the right path with our vision and mission, but we need the laser focus on our goal - making disciples who make disciples.  We were created for relationship with God, but we were also created for relationship with one another.  Without relationship with one another, we are not complete.  Our relationship with God and with others is the key to becoming, and making, disciples.


Jesus told those who would become His disciples, "Come, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men."  From this, we can see that:

• A disciple is one who is committed to following Christ - has made Jesus Lord of their life.  Luke 9:23; John 8:31 - being changed at the head level.
• A disciple is one who is committed to being changed by Christ - is becoming like Christ in attitude and action.  John 15:8; Romans 8:29; Galatians 5:22; John 13:35 - moving God from the head level to the heart level.
• A disciple is one who is committed to the mission of Christ - the ministry of reconciliation.  John 15:8; Matthew 4:19; 2 Corinthians 5:19-20 - when people know God - head - and their relationship with God begins to change their heart, that's when they begin to engage - putting their faith in action with their hands.

Our goal at FCC-Phoenix is to make disciples who make disciples by connecting with God, growing together, and serving others to see real life change in Central Phoenix.  I'm really excited we are on this journey together.

Too Busy to Connect with God?

One of the common complaints I hear from people is how busy they, and everyone they know, are.  I was struck by a passage from Luke 5 that speaks to how busy Jesus was and how He responded.  After healing a leper in verse 13, Jesus instructs the man not to tell anyone about it but to go to the priest and present himself as clean.  But word about what Jesus did got out, and "the news about him spread all the more, so that crowds of people came to hear him and to be healed of their sicknesses."


What a ministry opportunity!  Crowds of people came to hear him and to be healed.  I can see the disciples telling Him, "Jesus, all our dreams are coming true!  Look at the crowds of people coming to hear you and to be healed by you!  This is great!"  But then verse 16 throws us a curve: "But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed."  Why would He do that?  People had come to listen to Him teach.  They had come to be healed.  But Jesus thinks it is important enough to withdraw to lonely places to pray.


I think there is a significant lesson for us in this.  In the midst of our busyness; in the midst of all of the "good" things we are doing, are we connecting to the source of our strength?  Are we spending time talking to, and listening to, God?  Do we know what we are missing out on when we are too busy to connect with God?  I want to encourage you to carve out some times during the day to connect with God.  Just plan on a few minutes several times a day just to quiet yourself and to talk to and listen to God.  I believe you will be surprised at what it will do for you.


What do you need to do to make time to connect with God?


I want to encourage you to click on this link to watch a powerful video from International Justice Mission.  Then determine how God wants you to respond.  Go ahead, ask Him.